When asked after the Game 1 loss in San Antonio whether the Lakers believe they can win this series without Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol (16) replied 'Yeah. We have to be confident about it.' ERIC GAY, AP

SAN ANTONIO – Back when many were expecting the Lakers to miss the playoffs, Metta World Peace and, later, Dwight Howard took to talking about how the fledgling team could rise up and make history.

It would not have been entirely surprising, really, for a team with enough talent that it was projected to be champions before the season to get healthy, get serious and get going with truly making history.

But with Steve Nash moving slowly and awkwardly and with Kobe Bryant not moving at all, the Lakers' plans for everything to come neatly together at the critical time have been crushed by their biggest adversity avalanche yet.

Pau Gasol was asked after the Game 1 loss in San Antonio whether the Lakers believe they can win this series without Bryant. It was hardly a probing question, but the answer was still rather telling: "Yeah. We have to be confident about it."

There's obviously only one acceptable answer to that question, but whether it's a true answer from a full heart is less clear-cut.

Gasol being the rational, logical sort, his approach to Game 2 is technical: He called for "a little better ball movement" before the Lakers lock in on their gameplan of feeding him and Dwight Howard in the post. That way the Spurs won't be in such great position to front the post and have their whole defense set to make double-team digs at the ball to create turnovers.

But Gasol is also a Bryant loyalist who has a biased perspective: Gasol came to the Lakers in 2008 and, with Bryant, immediately reached three consecutive NBA Finals, winning the last two. With Memphis before that, Gasol lost all 12 of his playoff games.

So it's logical for him to wonder, and he who usually keeps his phone off in his locker during games is the sort to say he'll turn it on to get the messages Bryant wants to deliver from afar at halftime.

Meanwhile, Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni has openly talked about turning his phone off so he won't be interrupted by Bryant's halftime input. That prompted Bryant, even though he has decided not to use Twitter to share his opinions during Game 2 Wednesday, to tweet this about D'Antoni: "if he kept his phone on so I could call him, I wouldn't have to tweet it LOL #imjoking #keepfocus #ontothenextone"

An offensive coach from the jump, D'Antoni certainly has his own ideas to improve the Lakers' execution – and they boil down to one word: flow.

The Lakers lately have not had the flow that D'Antoni tries to teach and encourage in his players: Take the open shot or the viable pass without hesitation.

Then again, D'Antoni has almost never taught or encouraged a standstill post-up, inside-out offense, even though he on Monday described the Lakers' offense this way: "We're inside-out now. We're full-blown and we'll keep doing that."

That is the way Howard wants to play, and in keeping with his inspired attitude since Bryant got hurt, Howard continued with strong statements that have grown firmer as his Kobe-less responsibility for the Lakers' fate has grown, too.

"Me and Pau have to dominate in the paint," Howard said, "and we should win."

The Lakers' perimeter offense also got good news Monday, when Nash felt well enough to go through the Lakers' light session in a small high-school gym despite logging 31 minutes on his sore right hamstring and hip that prevent him from running full speed. The Lakers will have another practice Tuesday on the AT&T Center game floor.

"It's not great," Nash said. "It's not going to be great. ... I'm not going to be able to move as well as I would like, but I'm going to have to make the most of it and do what I can to help."

Howard also correctly noted that the Lakers can't try so hard to ramp up their offense that they again lose touch on defense, saying: "The biggest thing for us is just playing the right way on the defensive end."

The concern for the Lakers at that end is Tony Parker will play better and the Spurs will make more of the mid-range jumpers the Lakers conceded.

The deeper question of belief for San Antonio, by the way, is not even a question at all.

Do the Spurs believe they can beat the Lakers?

Well, the Spurs aren't even practicing Tuesday in advance of the game Wednesday.

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